Sunday by The Bay

Today my old buddy, Chris, tied the knot with his girlfriend, Hannah at the beautiful Marina Park in Emeryville. Thank goodness for the breeze, or I wondered how everyone in suits could stand the heat wave!

I have a lot of respect for women with the devotion to plan their weddings. I personally don’t have the patience nor the will to take care of millions of details. However, Hannah didn’t just plan her wedding, she actually tended to every single detail! Yes, she was their own wedding planner, and I have to say that she did a marvelous job. Just arranging the flowers would be enough to drive me crazy!

It turned out that our old buddy, Dave, is a minister of the Universal Life Church and could legally marry Chris and Hannah. In junior high, Dave thought that it would be fun to be a minister, so he sent in his application and was ordained to be a minister. (This was back in the pre-Web days; now one can easily become a minister by going to the Universal Life Church website. ) However, not until this wedding, had he exercised his powers.

It was fun to see friends that I hadn’t seen in 7, 8, and maybe even 9 years. Oh my God! Could it be that long already!? Back then, most of us had just gotten out of school and were working at our first real jobs in the software industry. Maybe because we were all young and free and adventurous and all, we spent a lot of weekends partying, rollerblading, skiing/snowboarding, hiking, and even trips to Yosemite. After leaving that company, I have never been able to do the same again. Well, even though I have no intention to turn back the clock, it was great to see everyone there and catch up what I had missed. Three are now married men (We all thought Troyer would never get married!), and Kelly’s son, a cute little boy who used to tag along with us, was celebrating his 21-year-old birthday in Las Vegas as we spoke! Geez, time certainly flies!

After the ceremony, there was a little bit of time before the reception, so a big group of us walked to the nearby bar, Trader Vic’s, to enjoy one another’s company and get a little happily tipsy before the wedding banquet started. I had never been to one of Trader Vic’s, but Dave filled us up with its stories, including that it’s the place where Mai Tai was invented. (Dave is full of stories about everywhere and everything. )

The wedding banquet was held at Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood Restaurant. Every dish symbolized long life, good health, and all the lucky wishes, and they were in general delicious, especially the lobster dish. As the night got darker, the crowd got rowdier (in a good way, of course.) Everyone was feeling happy (the bottomless wine probably helped some) and Chris & Hannah’s big day ended on a good note.

Congratulations!